Day 35

We woke up this morning at 5:30 so we could break at dawn to begin another day on the river. Unfortunately it was so cold overnight (28 degrees) that it was still bitter cold at sunrise which caused significant fogging over the river. We decided to try and realized once we got on the main channel that seeing logs and not being able to see the buoys was a bad idea, so we turned back to wait a couple hours for the fog to clear. We left again at 8:30 only to find we had another problem, the starboard engine was hesitating every couple of minutes as though it was not getting fuel. Since there was no marina south for over 100 miles we decided the best decision would be to head back and try to diagnosis the problem. Grant determined it was likely either the fuel filter or the water separators (both part of the same unit), so he called Cliff (the marina owner) and told him of our problem. Cliff told him he would stop by Napa and pick up a new filter on his way to the marina to try that. Grant replaced the filter, and we took the boat out on the river to test the fix, and yet again, we were lucky and the problem appeared to be fixed. The only problem is that it was already early afternoon, and there was no way we would be able to make it to Demopolis, so we were stuck for another day in Bumbleweed (Columbus), Mississippi…

Well, Cliff came through. He told us he had a courtesy vehicle we could use to run into town for dinner if we liked. Tabbie needed a few things at Wal-Mart, so we headed into town later in the afternoon to grab supplies, and a bite to eat at the local Pizza Hut. There is one main drag that has all of the retail for Columbus that we could tell, and it seemed every other shop was a “Cash for Titles” store. And the crazy part was the vehicles you saw on the road. They are either worth less than $3,000 or over $30,000… (must be the $30,000 vehicles are owned by the Cash store owners! Seems to be a bit of a discrepancy between economic classes down here.

Back to the marina to check the forecast for tomorrow. Uh oh, calling for rain all day…

Day 34

We woke up this morning at 5:30 so we could break at dawn to begin another day on the river. Unfortunately it was so cold overnight (28 degrees) that it was still bitter cold at sunrise which caused significant fogging over the river. We decided to try and realized once we got on the main channel that seeing logs and not being able to see the buoys was a bad idea, so we turned back to wait a couple hours for the fog to clear. We left again at 8:30 only to find we had another problem, the starboard engine was hesitating ever couple of minutes as though it was not getting fuel. Since there was no marina south for over 100 miles we decided the best decision would be to head back and try to diagnosis the problem. Grant determined it was likely either the fuel filter or the water separators (both part of the same unit), so he called Cliff (the marina owner) and told him of our problem. Cliff told him he would stop by Napa and pick up a new filter on his way to the marina to try that. Grant replaced the filter, and we took the boat out on the river to test the fix, and yet again, we were lucky and the problem appeared to be fixed. The only problem is that it was already early afternoon, and there was no way we would be able to make it to Demopolis, so we were stuck for another day in Bumbleweed (Columbus), Mississippi…

Well, Cliff came through. He told us he had a courtesy vehicle we could use to run into town for dinner if we liked. Tabbie needed a few things at Wal-Mart, so we headed into town later in the afternoon to grab supplies, and a bite to eat at the local Pizza Hut. There is one main drag that has all of the retail for Columbus that we could tell, and it seemed every other shop was a “Cash for Titles” store. And the crazy part was the vehicles you saw on the road. They are either worth less than $3,000 or over $30,000… (must be the $30,000 vehicles are owned by the Cash store owners! Seems to be a bit of a discrepancy between economic classes down here.

Back to the marina to check the forecast for tomorrow. Uh oh, calling for rain all day…

Day 33

Well, today is Thanksgiving, and we were hoping to be in Demopolis, but are instead in Bumbleweed Mississippi (Columbus if you looked it up on a map). Due to the high water, and significant amount of debris, we thought it best to hold out another day until the river settled a bit and was more easily navigable… Anyway, it would be nice to have full power for Thanksgiving…

We decided to take a bike ride in the morning to pass the time and check out the area. A couple miles down the road was the Waverley Mansion, for which the majority of the area is named after. They happened to be open on the holiday, so we decided to take the grand tour. It ends up this house was built by a Colonel in the Confederate Army who purchased 50,000 acres in the area to build a plantation. Grant was very interested in the real estate related questions, and not so much the antiques that the tour guide was so excited to show off… Tabbie thinks the crazy lady giving the tour would fit quite well in Kimswick back in Missouri! And of course there were tales of the house being haunted, but we didn’t see any ghosts during our visit (I guess they get holidays off too!) The interesting part of the home was that although on the national historic registry, the home was owned by an individual, and they lived there! How, we couldn’t determine, but the tour guide said it was an antique collector, and that at least somewhat explained how someone could live in a place were you couldn’t touch anything! It ends up that the current owner purchased the home in the 60’s after the house had been vacant for over 50 years. Homeless, hunters, teenagers, and river travelers seeking shelter all exploited the home during the 50 years of its uninhabited time, but remarkably did not do significant damage… The owner also maintained a garden (although it was not kept very well considering the hype about it), and the owner raised peacocks (what exactly do you do with a peacock?? – we don’t know either!) We were kicked off the premises as the owner was having his family Thanksgiving in the dining room a few hours later, odd….

This is both Grant’s and Tabbie’s first Thanksgiving as nomads, so we decided it best to go all out, at least as much as we could living on a boat with the limited means… Tabbie had the determination to make a superb meal, and Grant kept to watching the football games on TV (typical!)… Well, as you can see by the pictures, Tabbie succeeded well beyond the expectations, and we enjoyed a spectacular Thanksgiving meal of Cornish game hens, green bean casserole (Tabbie’s favorite, although we won’t mention she used cream of celery instead of mushroom on accident), potatoes (sweet and mashed), and of course pumpkin pie for dessert!

To bed early today, as it is expected to be a nice day tomorrow for travel, and are trying to make our longest day trip yet (120 miles)…

It clears up at night-then rains all day.

Grants meal.

Thanksgiving diner

Paper mill. Doesn't it look like a dinosaur?

The lockmasters make us wear lifejackets now.

The Marina

Day 32

We left Midway marina this morning at 9:30 to warnings about the high water levels and gusty wind due to the previous few days storms. Everything was going fine until after the second lock (of four) of the day. This is where the original Tombigbee river flowed into the man made canal. Grant was driving and yelled to Tabitha with what he saw (see pic). Both of us watched as a fully grown mature tree drifted into the manmade channel from the Tombigbee river, and it was moving fast!! Whoa, this is going to get interesting!!! Sure enough, we hit the current and away we went, fast and furious (ok, we were going at a whopping 15 mph, but it seemed fast all right!!) Grant decided it best to drive upstairs even though it was a bit chilly… It was like trying to navigate through a mine field, knowing that you only see 50% (at best) of the log that is floating down the river, and knowing at any minute there could be a slightly submerged log that you do not see and bang, there goes a week of travel to get a drive shaft replaced…

We made it to the last lock and debris was picking up considerably since we first encountered it. After approaching the lock we saw extensive debris on the outside entrance to the lock. Grant was hoping that once the doors opened it would provide for a path to enter, but no such luck. Grant called the lock asking for assistance, but the lockmaster was only able to tell him that the only way in was to push through the log jam… Great!! We approached carefully and eased our way through, only it didn’t go according to plan, and we got caught up alongside the starboard lock wall since Grant couldn’t steer the boat due to a 30’ log caught up under the boat. We managed to push our way into the lock and tie up the first bollard, and once the lockmaster began the process of lowering us, Grant worked on getting the log free. We fortunately did not have to get into the water to do so, and were able to free the rest of the small debris from around the propellers and were back underway in about an hour.

We decided not to try our luck on the hook, so Tabbie called the nearest marina and made arrangements to dock for the night. We pulled into Waverly Marina about 4:00 and were greeted by the owner, who was glad we stopped in. After we fueled up and secured the boat for the night we saw why the owner was happy to see a transiant, this place was not what you would expect a marina to look like. There were 10 year round slips with a fixed dock (which was underwater due to the high water) that had about 100 feet of transient dockage. The place reminded Tabbie of a trailer park on the water… Anyway, we were able to hook up to power, and were just satisfied to have a secure spot for the night.

By the end of the night, this dock was about 10 inches under water.

Grant had to dodge trees like this one all day.

The bouy is almost under water.

Day 31

Again, rain today expected all day so we decided to stick around and “hang” with the locals… Grant took a run in the morning, and got soaked! The weather is not going to cooperate with us so we are going to do some house projects. Tabbie finished sewing her quilt, made a pumpkin pie, finished up the laundry and went for a nice walk when the weather cleared for awhile. Grant did some maintenance around the boat and replaced a few things, caught up on some reading, watched a movie in the lounge and hung out with the locals. Note to Tabbie-don’t try to communicate with Grant while he is engrossed in a movie. He is in no response mode. (Joan-I sympathize) We also got a chance to walk over to the James Whitten Lock Museum. The ground was so wet we felt like we were walking in a swamp.

The rest of the evening we spent getting ready for our anticipated early morning departure. However at about 7pm thunderstorms started rolling in along with Tornado Warnings and more pouring rain. So we are hung out in the lounge again and watched the weather channel with a lady who happens to be from Minneapolis. She wasn’t too keen on being on her boat during severe weather. We were up here using the high speed, so we got to know one another. It is a small world. Not sure if we are going to be able to leave tomorrow or not. If we don’t get going we won’t make it home for x-mas.

Yes Mike J. I do make quilts. Almost done with this one!

Boat decorated for x-mas. Can you see our boat?

Tabbie is already preparing a pie for Thanksgiving!

Great.... fog.

A walk thru the woods

Tree graveyard

Day 30

Today we woke to pouring rain. So we decided to stay in bed. It is calling for rain for the next two days. At least it is not cold anymore. The harbormaster told us that there was wireless internet in the lounge so we decided to try and get that working on the computer. Sure enough, Tabbie, the technical genius that she is was able to get the computer online in minutes and at HIGH SPEED! Wow, the modern luxury’s you soon forget! We spent most of the morning updating the website, checking emails, and paying bills… The afternoon was saved for going to WalMart with the courtesy car the marina let us borrow. Updated the necessary supplies, and took a few minutes to people watch in this great state… OK, maybe not so great, but fun to watch the folk you usually only get to see on a rerun episode of COPS!! Got back to the boat and made some dinner and drinks, actually quite a few drinks… Won’t be getting up early tomorrow…

Day 29

Today we got out of the marina at about 9am. Our goal is to be to Demopolis by Friday. We are sick of the crummy weather and we are trying to get south as fast as we can. Then we plan on spending more time in the gulf. We are going downriver now, so we should be making better time. We are cruising down a river called the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. (Otherwise known as the ten-tom) This is a man-made river that connects the Tennessee river to the Tombigbee river and then on to the gulf. The project started in 1972 and ended in 1985, and they moved 3 times more earth than the Panama Canal. One of the largest projects the United States Army Corp of Engineers ever completed. As a result they created 10 man-made lakes and require 12 locks to maintain the water level. It is a pretty impressive feat.

We are still having problems communicating with the natives. The towboat captains use different language, than those on the Ohio, who happened to be different than the Mississippi. Mostly Grant just pretends that he understood what they said. The lockmasters have been kind of unhelpful also. We can’t always understand their “southern drawl” and feel idiotic asking them to repeat themselves several times. They usually repeat themselves twice and then ignore us. So we just wing it. Not sure if they just don’t like northerners or if we need a translator. An old guy at the last marina scared the crap out of Tabbie by calling her a Yankee, but then started laughing and said, “That’s ok, I’m from Illinois.” She ran down the dock and back to the boat as fast as she could.

We just kept plugging on and made it through 3 locks today and docked ourselves at Midway Marina in Fulton. Neat story about the marina is that the couple that currently own it were just passing by and came in to stay for the night, ended up liking it so much that they bought it and have lived here ever since. It is a very “community” orientated marina. No locked gates, a lounge where everyone likes to hang out, and people as friendly as they can be. In fact they are almost over friendly. By the time that we pulled in here, there were so many people on the dock helping, bellaring, yakking away that it tends to make someone who is just looking to settle in, quite crabby. But after tying down, taking a shower and making a little diner, life was a lot better. They even had a hot tub, which we were very thankful for. I think that we are going to stay for a few days. So much for Demopolis by Friday.

The wood chip mill.

Captain Wood

We still can't get over how massive these doors are.....

What is Tabbie doing?

Approaching the big lock.

Woodchips headed to the paper mill. Can you see the steam? They were still warm from the chopper.

Fall foliage